Featuring: Dave Burrell
| 1. On a Saturday Night |
7:57 |
| 2. A.M. Rag |
5:38 |
| 3. Lush Life (Strayhorn) |
6:12 |
| 4. Punaluu Peter |
8:28 |
| 5. Sarah's Lament |
4:59 |
| 6. Stepping Out (or, Monday Night Death Rehearsal) |
2:57 |
| 7. Embraceable (Gershwin/ Gershwin) |
4:48 |
| 8. Black Robert |
3:57 |
| 9. My Dog Has Fleas / Menehune Messages |
6:22 |
| 10. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington) |
2:18 |
Kurt Gottschalk - New York City Jazz Record
Lines might be drawn between Dave Burrell (who turns 85 this month) and his piano forebear Thelonious Monk: adventurous spirits with adherence to syncopation and stride; writers of eminently memorable themes that teeter on carefully balanced structures. Each revisited old themes regularly, reworking them with new lineups. Burrell has had a dual career, often better recognized as a free improv titan, but there’s a composerly kinship between the two. The 1978 album Dave Burrell Plays Ellington & Monk underscores the suggestion, even if Monk is in the minority. Ellington has been a stronger throughline in Burrell’s long career and “Sophisticated Lady” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” are highlights of that album. Those two tunes show up again the following year during a twomonth residency with Ellington alum, drummer Sam Woodyard (1925-1988), at Campagne Premiere in Paris, woodshedding Burrell’s jazz opera Windward Passages. From there, Burrell made his way to Switzerland where he played a solo piano suite from the jazz opera (released as Windward Passages in 1980), introducing listeners to the set of themes he’d only touched on with previous albums. Those forces—the meeting of Woodyard and Windward via Ellington, Strayhorn and the Gershwins (“Embraceable You”)—propelled this previously unreleased August 1979 set. A recording was long rumored to exist, even readied for release by the Italian label Horo before disappearing again. It’s Burrell’s own, long-held cassette dub of the master that has made its way (happily, belatedly) into the hands of the Lithuanian label NoBusiness. The tape, released on CD and download as The Lost Session, Paris 1979, bears its age. The sound is clear but with audible hiss adding to the ambiance. Woodyard’s laughter, commentary and wordless utterances while playing are captured off-mic. The spirited meeting is a fantastic document, at once fired up and laid back, and the most energized readings of the Windward Passages compositions yet released. That’s due, in no small part, to Woodyard, who’s not there just to count time and play accompaniment. Already uptempo tunes are negotiated at impossible clips, steady on hi-hat and dropping beats that bee-line for the microphone. His exuberance, quite unlike the majority of recordings we have of him, calls to mind the in-your-face swing of veteran Dutch drummerpercussionist Han Bennink. There’s no doubt he’s having a blast; they both are. And peeking through this window in time is almost as fun.
Gabriel Aniol - Jazz Podium
Eine Swing- und/oder eine Ragtime-, jedenfalls eine auf den Jazz der Anfänge rück- blickende Komponente kenn- zeichnet immer das Spiel des ansonsten in Free-Kreisen an- gesiedelten Pianisten Dave Burrell. Kein zu großes Wunder also, dass er sich für dieses Recital aus Paris eines August- tages 1979 als Duopartner den durch Ellington gestählten Schlagzeuger Sam Woodyard ausgesucht hat. Mit ihm hat er am Aufnahmeort, dem Pariser Nachtklub Campagne Premiere, insgesamt ganze drei Monate residiert. Es war eine Vorbereitung auf sein wohl wichtiges Opus, von Burrell als »Oper« tituliert, das Solowerk »Windward Passages«. Es wurde knapp nach dieser Resi- dency für Werner X. Uehlingers Label Hat Hut eingespielt. Diese Kombination der Kräfte passt also wunderbar, auch wenn Burrell, nicht zuletzt mit seinem Zwei-Herzen-in-meiner Brust-Ausrichtung, eindeutig ein Programm lenkt, das Standards wie eigene Kompositionen bein- haltet. Unter ihnen befindet sich Burrells signature tune »A.M. Rag«, den wirklich jeder Jazzafficionado kennen sollte, aber auch, sicher nicht als Kon- zession an seinen Begleiter, sondern aus purer Zuneigung, Strayhorns »Lush Life« und Dukes »Sophisticated Lady«. Der Sound der Archivaufnahme, die nicht vom Masterband, sondern von einer Kassette stammt, ist nur ordentlich, die außerordentliche Qualität der Musik kommt aber durch. Die Liner Notes von Ed Hazell, der neben der Schilderung der Einspiel-Umstände Burrell und dessen Frau zu Woodyard interviewt, sind erhellend. Es gilt unbedingt hinzuhören.
